Better Buy a Hands-free

The city council has voted to ban the use of a cell phone while driving…sort of. Actually then banned the use of a cell phone without a hands-free device. Hizzoner has a week to approve the ban. If and when approved, violators will be fined $100.

The ban passed 8-to-1 on Wednesday with Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel voting against it. She said she was concerned the policy is too difficult to enforce while those who do comply will have to pay for earpieces for their phones.

“We need to address the issue of distracted driving,” she said, adding that the ban still allows drivers to talk on the phone, which studies show is the real problem.

If you don’t think she has a point, let me point out the things you still can do while driving:

Smoke (that is, hold a stick on fire in one hand)

Eat

Have your arm around your significant other

Fiddle with your radio

Shift gears

That trucker-move with the left elbow out the window.

So watch out, cops are on the lookout for cell phones. Blowing red lights, speeding and illegal lefts are still cool, though.

Jeff, where did you get these tickets at? Since I’ve moved into the city, I’ve noticed that traffic policing is very patchy. Generally, the immediate vicinity of WSU has the most enforced traffic rules. I’ve been getting killed with parking tickets on Cass lately and I see speedtraps on 3rd (Anthony Wayne) frequently.

Other than that, I’ve found it’s pretty much anything goes when driving through the city. In fact, I see it so frequently that sometimes I even find myself going through red lights in seeminlgy vacant neighborhoods.

To me, this new ordinance just sounds like more amo for the WSU police to pull people over for.

Detroit Census TriplicationMollika* I had to return a fourth survey. I am representing the non-Doctor Indian population of Detroit :0)likwidshoe It’s all about representation, not funding. Detroiters needs to lose the entitlement mindset.